Gaming Buzz

Now this is a strange story: so we’ve all heard of people getting pissed with games and doing stupid things… the most extreme being what? kicking people’s butts… or killing them.

Actually, yeah they’re people who kill over video games, its pretty sad, but there’s a lot of gaming gangs in places all over the world that actually take revenge in the real world for virtual damage.

However this story isn’t quite as sad as that, but its just weird. Basically, this happens, a guy bought a console from a family in American Fork, if that really is a place! but he decides later to give it back, for whatever reasons…

He goes back to their house, and shoves their 17 year old kid in the car and drives off with him. I gets worse, at a red light, the teen just conveniently steps out of the car, and runs to a gas station. The kid napper is later arrested.

None of any of this makes any sense to me, unless he was playing some lame ass game on the console, and assumed it was the consoles fault he wasn’t enjoying himself? But if he thought kidnapping someone would help, he probably wasn’t smart enough to make the association!

Reliance and Gameloft have tied up to bring Paris Hilton to India. No, she isn’t visiting India, but a video game avatara, and the first to feature Paris will be released across the Reliance network, from GSM to CDMA and even on the black berry platforms.

The game basically involves a sneak peak into the life of Paris Hilton, and what she does. Interestingly the story line borrows from her sister’s line of work, as Paris is trying to launch her own jewellry line.

Of course the once actress, and tv personality shouldn’t have any problems doing so, but instead, she embarks on a world tour in search of the right jewels for her line. And this is what the player of the game has to assist her with, finding her way around the top cities of the world, and then finding jewels etc. they’re many puzzles to be solved, and in the process you get a sneak peak into the world of glamour that Paris Hilton Inhabits.

Gameloft as part of the deal will also be releasing several of its other Hollywood based games on Reliance, including Night at the Museum II, and Spider man.

So there is a new game that is gaining popularity around me. The game of student politics. The reason, I must, unfortunately call this a game, is because, its nothing more than a glorified exercise in popularity attainment, and doesn’t really have any bearing on… well anything at all. 

The presidents in the last two years of college, have done nothing, and don’t really ever intend to do anything, what gets done, does so, almost inspite of the very strong forces of ‘change’ arrayed, sometimes, you wonder against or for it… or whether they’re arrayed at all.

The constitution of our college is such, that what the ignorant are lead to believe is a representative union of students, is merely a glorified society, in which the Staff advisor non the less holds veto. So if anything truly aggravating were to be done, to the students or the staff, quite frankly, it would be an extra-constitutional matter for the union to even take it up.

None the less each year, the members of the union get together, and try to get the college involved in voting for someone or the other. Of course the vast majority of the older members of college stay away from the event. But the freshers, yet to be disillusioned, happily buy what they’re told about the Union, and its role in college life. 

It’s quite a lot of fun, to watch the same people make the same promises that have been made for the last three years, with the same vehemence that they were made when I first joined college. What I sometimes wonder is how they don’t get tired of themselves, and my answer is the only way, that is possible, is because this whole thing is a big old game. And the elections are like a favorite stage that one goes back and plays over and over again.

Interestingly just like the good fighter games, each fighter has his own story, that you unlock at the end of the duel, each sub character has one too. But the greatest similarity is that the audience in real life too, just stands around and repeats the same motion of cheering and slapping palms together. Thankfully, though, in real  life, at least the faces change!

Here’s a reason to fly out of Mumbai on your way out to anyway, they have games. The Mumbai International airport has a new space they tout as a gaming zone, which is actually more of an arcade/kiddy play pen, but still it has some games worth wasting your time on.

The prices for whatever services they offer vary from Rs. 30-70 for the entertainment zone spread across 600sqm of the airport floor. Of course we have to wonder whether an airport really requires such an area… in my humble opinion, a LAN gaming network would be far more beneficial!

Okay not really, I don’t know what the deal with the Mumbai airport enetertainment zone really is, just picked up a random online story, but its interesting that gaming is being recognized as a legitimate source of keeping 6 year olds shut when waiting for a plain.

The parlor will be open 24×7 by the way, and well, what more can you expect… it’s the blooming airport, but hopefully, now it wont as boring.

So returning to my posts about a game where you get to play the pet, rather than have a pet. Imagine how much fun that could be. You should be able to program the dogs’ masters according to your liking, to look like you, act like you,  sound like you or whoever you want.

So you could program him to sound like you, or maybe like your wife, or some one you love. And then you could be trained by that person, to do things, like sit, stand, roll over etc. You could have celebrity voice overs… imagine Angelina Jolie barking at you to sit… could be fun! Okay sorry not SNM here, any more… but well, don’t dog trainers occasionally use whips?

No but seriously, this game might have enormous potential as a loneliness cure. I mean for everyone out there who feels unloved, being able to, as a dog, lick and kiss themselves, and shower themselves with affection, wont it be fun.

Even Calphurnia said something to Caesar about being his spaniel. Of course if anyone knew what that was, and I have only the vaguest clue, they’ll probably find it entirely irrelevant and quite stupid, but that’s not the point, the whole idea of playing a dog, could be so awesome don’t you think?

So here is another fantasy request from me… a game where you get to play a dog! All through life my own ambition was to be a dog, and it never struck me earlier, but that’s probably the one thing virtual reality could be useful for, I could realize my dream of being a dog.

Some how I can see this translating into a life long obsession with VR gear, but it wont, I have come much closer in real life, judging from the number of times I’ve been called a dog in the last year!

However, I think a Sims or something like, it, only for pets might be awesome. We could be expected to learn various tricks, that we would have no clue about. Imagine being taught to sit, with a biscuit in front of your nose and some one pushing your ass down… not the most comprehensive way to convey ‘sit’ is it… the game could really be a lot of fun… I feel, oooh, I think I’m going to be writing about this one for some time.

You know, before the computer was reduce a mere plaything, we used to still have games, they were called board games, and many of them were no less amazing and fun that the newest game titles. It would be pretty neat to see some of these board games be turned into awesome PC or console games. Here a list of my top 5.

5. Ludo: I know this seems pretty lame to most people, but this game, when played with proper strategy is possibly the most fun I’ve had on a board game. Of course its adaptability to the computer screen is a little doubtful, but I’m just saying. Plus Ludo is the quintessential board game anyway.

4. Chess: now I know the chess master series is out there, but I don’t mean something like that at all, in the sense, I don’t want to play chess on the computer, but the essential elements of a game like chess, with war strategy being of prime importance. In the sense that all the RTS games out there right now, simply conform to, if you have more resources, you’ll win… but the kind of game where military strategy not resources count, is what I’m looking for.

3. The game of life: Simply because of how much fun this could be, but I have to admit, the Sims series has done a good job on this one, so I’m going to nominate another number 3: Battle ship: this one is pretty amazing, and really needs to be made into a game already, its quite obvious how it could be done, so it already!

2. Monopoly: who wouldn’t want to play this one? I see it as a cross between GTA and something less tedious. Essentially where you get to decide what you want to do, to get hold of more and more territory, and then decide what you want to do with it. Perhaps a cross between one of the tycoon games and GTA? I haven’t played the tycoon series so I can’t say, unfortunately.

1. Scotland Yard: hours of multiplayer fun ring a bell? This is what its all about! C’mon some one make this into a game, I mean it just kicks ass… I cant even imagine how much fun this might be. The biggest advantage of the game will be that we wont have to beg 4 other people to join us, before the game is worthwhile… hail to the bots!

So that’s my list, tell me what you think.

This is a tribute piece, to the game that got me into gaming in the first place. This game is the most awesome game ever, and I could play it over and over again… though unfortunately, I never got beyond the fifth stage, of ten in the game, which kind of brings my ‘gaming’ credentials into doubt… but I assure you, I have improved substantially since then. Or I think I have.

The game in question is Dave… an old school MSDos, pre-pentium, 8mb ram game, without video card requirements, and irritating system error message sound effects for the jump, gun, and jet pack sounds. It was so Awesome, though as I said I never managed to beat it, largely because I used to play it at school, during computer lab class… when the teacher wasn’t looking, we’d exit whatever we were supposed to be doing, Logo programming usually, and start up Dave.

The game was just so awesomely simple, by the time I got to the end of it, I could play the first 2 stages with my eyes closed ( I mean literally). The Third stage was a little harder, because of these flying spider thingies, that you had shoot down. The fourth stage as a pain! cause you had to cross the whole thing twice. And there was another spider thingy in the middle of the stage, that you literally couldn’t get around.

In one of his more benevolent moments, after school, our computer teacher showed me how to beat it my actually bumping into it, and that cleared the stage, so that it was relatively easy there after.

One thing pretty cool about Dave was that it taught one not to be greedy. Very often these awesome jewels would be left lying around, in places you’d imagine you could get to with the jet pack, or by careful jumping. And equally often you realized, that the jet pack would have been better utilized getting to the door… and every then you’d be stuck perpetually in the same stage, not dead, but totally unmoving. A little like Dracula in the day time!

So there you have it, a fortune cookie of a game, that was Dave.

The NBA 2k series, which has long been the favourite basketball simulation title, is out with its anniversary edition. Moving up spot from its usual ‘game’ package, the limited edition, anniversary package contains a tribute video to the series, and even cooler, a sports locker with collectors’ items from the Koby Bryant who is the cover athelete for this edition.

Also in 10 of the 30,000 special edition lockers will be special fine art prints of the super star… so laker fans had better start praying, and buying the game already. The prints are designed by Shepard’s Faery Studion Number One! The package also contains a 3 inch action figure, and a 16by36 inch poster of the shooting guard.

 The 2k10 anniversary game can be expected to deliver as usual on the franchises high standard for virtual reality, and game play, and control. X box and PSN owners will be able to access a gold room, where they can rub shoulders with celebrities, whatever that means. The developers see the package as a way of saying thank you, and giving back to the fans that made it number one.

In other news, Kobe has decided to stay with the lakers! Big Surprise!